LJN
LJN Toys, Ltd. was an American toy company and video game publisher in operation from 1970 to 1995. It manufactured toy lines and released battery operated water guns and video games based on licensed properties from movies, television shows, and celebrities. It was headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, and later Lyndhurst, New Jersey. LJN introduced the Entertech line of battery operated water guns in 1986. LJN was the company that published the Spider-Man video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). History Founding LJN Toys Ltd. was founded in 1970 by Jack Friedman, who later founded other toy companies, notably THQ and Jakks Pacific. The name LJN came from reversing the initials of Norman J. Lewis, whose toy company (Norman J. Lewis Associates) had employed Friedman as a sales representative in the 1960's. Lewis himself initially backed LJN financially but later sold his interest to a Chinese investor. MCA era In 1985, MCA Inc. which had been actively acquiring companies in the mid-1980's acquired LJN for $66 or $67 million in an effort to retain more profits from the merchandising of it's film properties. LJN began publishing video games for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1987. Although this was LJN's first foray into the video game business, it was not for MCA who had previously started MCA Video Games, as a joint venture with Atari, Inc. to create coin-operated and home games and computer based on various MCA properties. In 1988, LJN acquired Italian toy company Al'es from the Fassi family. In 1989, MCA decided to sell LJN after years of losses since 1987 when fallout surrounded toy guns made by LJN's Entertech division plunged MCA's profits 79.5% in the second quarter of that year. MCA finally agreed to sell to Acclaim Entertainment in March 1990 for cash and Acclaim common stock for 30% to 50%. Acclaim era During the time the company was owned by Acclaim Entertainment, LJN continued with the same licensing direction. Acclaim eliminated LJN's toy division and reorganized it exclusively as a video game publisher. Spanning a number of video game console generations, LJN published games outsourced to external developers. Although many of LJN's titles (particularly the pre-Acclaim ones) do not disclose the developer, there is no video game that has been developed in-house by LJN. Most of LJN's games are based on a preexisting brand such as movies. During the 8-bit gaming era, Nintendo initiated a form of quality control based on limiting the number of titles to appear on it's console, the Nintendo Entertainment System. The company required each licensee company to limit the number of NES titles it published per year. As a result, companies like Acclaim created divisions such as LJN to produce more products than Nintendo would have otherwise allowed. Konami also utilized such workarounds with it's division Ultra. Even after Nintendo dropped this rule in the early 1990's, Acclaim continued operating LJN, which published several titles for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Game Boy. Although Acclaim distributed the video games, they were self-published and marketed by LJN. LJN, along with the Flying Edge and Arena Entertainment labels (the latter two labels had published Acclaim's games to Sega's consoles), were folded into Acclaim in 1995. In 2000, LJN made a return in name only when Acclaim used the brand to publish the Dreamcast port of Spirit of Speed 1937. Category:A-Z Category:Video game companies